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The walls of Memorial Stadium did not come tumbling down last week, but where is the stadium? Amid disputes over continued "renovation," construction is on schedule for completion in fall 2012, according to U.C.

Mulch ado about nothing much or has the university's football stadium disappeared?

Somewhere in some great recycling bin in the heavens you will find the last earthly remains of the university's fabled, disputed, and even despised by some—Memorial Stadium. As the accompanying photo illustrates, the controversial edifice is missing in action.

Where did it go?

According to Christine Shaff a university spokesman, the old stadium has been "re-cycled." Mulched?

Protestors tried to stop stadium construction in 2006. A tree-sit that cost the university an estimated million dollars ended in 2008. The present ground-zero look of the stadium shows the protester's idealized version of the stadium—toast.

According to the Daily Californian, reporting last week, the ongoing legal battles surrounding revisions to building plans continued at the May UC Board of Regents meeting last week.

According to university officials, construction at the stadium will continue on schedule as legal issues related to adjacent stadium sites are resolved in court.

"On Nov. 29, 2010, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch issued an order that determined UC Berkeley had improperly used an addendum to detail changes to the stadium renovation project, which included a 15,000-square-foot servicing and ticketing facility and a 546-spot parking structure located next to Maxwell Family Field," according to the Daily Cal.

But despite all the legal disputes, the stadium re-do-do will be back next fall with a few new bells and whistles—more restrooms, diapering stations, enhanced press boxes and elite stadium donor-seating—it just won't be the old stadium whether you call it a renovation, or a restoration, or a rebuild.

Although seemingly a rebuild-from-scratch, the new stadium is officially being called a renovation, according to Shaff, because the retro-fitted stadium walls are still standing and will host the new stadium.

According to a university spokesman, the new stadium will have 5% less seating.

A monument to donors who paid for it, the stadium will offer groundlings an alternative to the former metal benches and more leg room. All this and the security of believing the retrofitted digs are the safest spot on the Hayward Fault.

Perhaps staying in Hayward on game day would be even safer. The Panoramic Hill Organization which has fought the university over stadium noise for half a century would be pleased if everyone stayed home on game days so Panoramic could stay home.

According to U.C.'s Shaff, some of the hard-assed metal seats escaped being mulched and are being used by university sports programs. Some alums have purchased other benches (a hard sell?), she says.

Go Bears?

Sometimes the Planet's man on the South side, Ted Friedman, ventures into Bear territory.